Gergiev lures Munich concertmaster to Russia
NewsIt is reported that the concertmaster of the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra,Lorenz Nasturica-Herschcowici, is presently touring Russia with his sacked chief conductor Valery Gergiev.
They may not hold his job for him back home.
He has held the post since 1992.
In 1996, he founded the Trio Celibidache, which in my view might tell us a little something about his social and political awareness.
William Osborne:
and what was Celibidache’s “political awareness”?…
That he didn’t like your wife?…
What’s that got to do with politics?
And what does Lorenz have to do with this?
Oh, just little things like treating Anne-Sophie Mutter so badly she walked out of a rehearsal and cancelled her performance with the Munich Phil. Later, in the Spanish newspaper El Pais, he called her a “violin-playing hen.” I could mention many more examples, but I’m not going to waste too much time with reactionary anonymous cowards in the comments section of SD.
Oh my, such insider inuendo. What has the Celi Trio founded in 1996 to do with the price of rice today?
Die Antwort des Indendanten der Münchner Philharmoniker, Paul Müller, auf eine diesbezügliche Anfrage des deutschen Musikjournalisten Axel Brüggemann: “Unser Handlungsspielraum ergibt sich aus dem Arbeitsrecht. Wir haben die Nebentätigkeit von Herrn Nasturica juristisch prüfen lassen. Mit dem Ergebnis, dass aus arbeitsrechtlicher Sicht dagegen nichts einzuwenden ist. Inwieweit sie ethisch zu vertreten ist, muss jeder, der sie ausübt, für sich selbst verantworten.”
The answer of Paul Müller, artistic director of the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra, to an enquiry by the German music journalist Axel Brüggemann: “Our room for manoeuvre results from labour law. We have had Mr. Nasturica’s secondary employment legally examined. With the result that there is nothing to be said against it from the point of view of labour law. The extent to which it is ethically justifiable is a matter for each person who carries it out.”
Well, they fired Gergiev. How was this compatible with labor law ? The guy tarnishes the reputation of his employer, isn’t this enough ?
The temporary contract with Gergiev allowed a termination legally. The contract with a tenured public service orchestra musician in Germany doesn’t allow it. Simple as that.
Correct. And if you put morality before law, you end up losing both.
It’s not a bad gig while it lasts if you become Putin’s protégé. Need to sell your soul, but pretty decent, if you stayed in Russia, and is still alive.
I wonder how Gerard Depardieu is going these days. Doesn’t he also live in Russia?
Witch hunt in Europe comes to idiocy! Don’t mix classical art and sports with your dirty politics!
It was not in Europe that mix happened.
My jewish family heard exactly the same words from the Nazis ca.88 years ago.Idiots were back then,and now…And it´s not”your politics”…It´s Pootin´s and Russia´s politics.
By their fruits shall ye know them.
Whose dirty politics?
Lues? How clandestine of him. What was the hook bated with?
Any relation to Fork ‘Andles?
“They may not hold his job for him back home.”
That is not written in the newspaper (Merkur) article, so where does this “information” come from?
Speculation?
In the article they say that the orchestra is not happy about it, but it is not possible by law to prohibit this tour…
He’s a GREAT player! That cannot be denied.
I never liked his playing much…..Fat tone,heavy vibrato all the time,very gypsy like,stylistically often inappropriate and not very subtle.
Is Marcus Felsner going to stop now immediately working for him as he did with Gergiev? Can we expect another flowery, emotional and cheesy statement?
No.All we can expect is another silly eastern german comment.
I find Friedrich Merz’s visit to the Ukraine just as irritating.
It’s not his job.
Grandioser Musiker .
Art is not, never, apolitical! Artists make choices…this one choosed the wrong side!!!
The complete reverse is the case. Music is incapable of making any form of political statement. Music may express Philosophy, Spitirituality, Emotion, and many other aspects of the human condition, but never politics. Nor is it remotely true that collaboration with a particular musician implies any affinity, approval, or even knowledge of that person’s politics. That would be an absolutely absurd proposition. If a violinist accepts ‘extra’ work from a Symphony Orchestra, this does not mean that the violinist approves of the politics of the Principal Conductor or Orchestra Leader. Musicians collaborate with each other for music reasons only. Involving any other considerations would be rank amateurism, obviously. It is also not remotely true that a musician from a ‘Western’ country currently working in Russia is ‘supporting’ any political or military aspirations of the present Government in Russia. Nothing could be further from the truth. If I perform in Birmingham, this does not mean that I am approving of whatever the political colour of Birmingham City Council happens to be at the time. In fact, I haven’t the faintest idea what the political colour of Birmingham City Council is, and nothing could interest me less. The political colour of Birmingham City Council probably changed last night anyway. Nor is it true that a musician performing in an ecclesiastical building holds any form of ‘religious’ belief. And so on, and so on, and so on.
Valery Gergiev used to invite concertmasters from orchestras, where he was chief conductor, to the Mariinsky, to festivals or to tours : Igor Gruppman from Rotterdam, Simunić (right name?) from LSO and for many years Lorenz Nasturica-Herschkowici from Munich.
The Mariinsky website lists him as guest conductor, and indeed he leads many concerts of the so called Stradivarius Ensemble of the Mariinsky, playing violin, not as conductor.
My sources from the orchestra told me last summer, that he moved to St.Petersburg and became leader of the 1st violins (no idea, whether he appeared in Munich since then). That would make sense, because I noticed in the past a big fluctuation of these musicians : Kirill Terentiev, Alexei Lukirsky, Stanislav Ismailov and now Olga Volkova all left the orchestra, and some of them joined the Bolshoi and Mikhailovsky Theatre Orchestras. Terentiev went first to Lahti and then to Germany.
Does every aspect of our lives these days have to be political? Asking because I think we are losing sight of the over all goal in classical music just to be politically on the right side of things, and it’s becoming increasingly more discriminatory than a show of solidarity.
The dubious morality aside, he may have done well to have pondered the fate of Prokofiev.
He’s been touring with Gergiev for years – in the US too.